Typically, developers write software applications to allow for many degrees of freedom in their configuration. By way of example, these developers are able to leverage these degrees of freedom by establishing a software application that operates within specific constrains of a particular platform that is provided to support the software application. Thus, these freedoms associated with the software application enable the software application to operate in cooperation with the platform.
In one instance, this configuration of software application may be employed by application-service providers who develop the software application to operate on a platform that is remotely accessible via the Internet. In this instance, the platform executes the software program in such a way that users may remotely manipulate files using the software application. Accordingly, the platform is adapted to establish underlying elements of the software application running thereon to accommodate a current load of the remote usage. The degrees of freedom in the software application allow for scaling up or down these underlying elements and for managing the coordination therebetween.
However, the management of coordination between the underlying elements is generally inconsistent and unreliable. By way of example, the underlying elements may encounter problems in operation (e.g., nonresponsiveness, crashes, slow performance, and the like). Because the platform typically comprises various computing devices for hosting the underlying elements, it is difficult to track these operational problems across the platform. Moreover, present attempts to track performance of the software application do not consider many aspects that affect the operation of the software application, such as status of resources within the platform that are relied upon by the underlying elements or the availability of each of the underlying elements.
Current solutions to facilitate monitoring the software application rely on curators of the platform to manually observe the underlying elements individually for changes in status thereto. These ad hoc solutions are labor-intensive and error-prone. Further, these current solutions do not provide a contextual monitoring description of the software application from which to ascertain reliable analysis. These shortcomings of manual involvement are exaggerated when the platform is expansive in size, comprising a multitude of interconnected hardware components, that support the operation of a multitude of software applications.